^
I recently rewatched GEN myself and I've got to agree that the Christmas scene is TERRIBLE. It's terrifying to see how conservative Trek can be which is all the more jarring since it's supposed to be a view of the FUTURE. Instead, in instances like these they just get right into gloryfying the past without truly reflecting.
In that scene, I hate just about everything - the house, the clothes, the kids, and as others have mentioned the fact that his wife is not Beverly. That's just wrong IMHO.
Generally speaking, I think it was a mistake they came up with the whole Nexus thing. For one, it costs way too much time setting it all up. If you want to get the two captains together, have Kirk skip forward in time in a freak transporter accident or ANY form of spatial anomaly - i.e. cut right to the chase.
I also think that they things are handled, this movie really hurts Picard, actually. Here, his 'holier than thou' attitued goes right through the rough. Hell, he's just human - if you're REALLY that happy in the Nexus, he shouldn't even be contemplating going back.
Plus, and this is a minor complaint in comparison, he doesn't catch on to the fact that it doesn't matter at all WHEN he goes back. He can basically spend all the 'time' he likes in the Nexus (though no time passes, of course) and get back into action at any point. No need to hurry.
Interestingly, this reminds me of AGT which I also recently saw again. Q should be right on Picard's back here for not 'getting' it.
As for Kirk's death, it just ends up feeling disappointing. One of the main reasons in my mind is that it just feels totally unnecessary. Picard picked the point of time to return to and, frankly, it was a REALLY bad pick. With what he knew, he could have gone back even further and ended up on the bridge of the Enterprise (which is one way to bring both Captains to the bridge if you accept the movie to this point) with all the knowledge to prevent what Soran was planning.
While I'm at it, here's another complaint, two, actually. I hate the fact that Data just decides to pop in the emotion chip. Shouldn't he go to Picard with this and ask first? Shouldn't he be doing this during shore leave? This nonsense leads to Geordi's abduction which leads to my next complaint: Nobody catches on to the fact that Geordi's visor has been manipulated AND the shield modulation is almost blinking off a billboard.
This, IMHO, is one of many examples where the Enterprise crew (the best in the fleet, as we're told many times) is directly responsible for the dilemma or at the very least they make the situation worse.
I find it REALLY hard to sit through this movie which is why I normally don't
